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MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MG Y Type - YA head/manifold clamp studs.

Another minutia : my new (from the UK) replacement head/manifold studs are 4" long; the originals are 4 1/4 inches. Thus the new ones, if threaded into the head to the full extent (I would think good practice), do not offer enough "meat" to fully engage the nut and spring washer on the clamp. Before I make up my own new studs*, am I being too precious? - I could in theory engage half the available thread into the head, and "just make it".
PS - the UK supplier hadn't realised that the stud is longer on the YA. They have amended their catalogue; the 4 1/4" stud is also Wolseley.
* The studs are GBPounds 6+ each, so GBP25 for 4, plus another GBP 25 for postage! Horrible - I'll make my own.
John.


J P Hall

Hi J
I don't see that a 4" stud is of any use to Y owners i have just measured my YB and the stud out from the head is 3&7/8 of an inch long which must mean there must be a least 1/2" in the head.the amout of thread beyond the clamp is opprox 1/8th to a 1/4 of an inch.
John YB0362
PS
Try sending them back Surface mail and inform the suppliers, cheap but Time!!!??
JC Jebb

Hardly minutiae John. These things are important. The aftermarket has a habit of getting things wrong - especially the threads used. Seriously though the manifold studs are not the most stressed items on the car and I would have no problem reusing them if you have them. The length, however, is important, as you observe, and having the maximum thread length in the head is always good practice. Another thing which strikes me is that having a bit extra length is always a good thing especially if you are thinking of using a carb heat shield.
Ian
ian thomson

Hi All,
I should have said the distance beyond the clamp locking washer and nut.
John YB0362
JC Jebb

Hi All, I made a set of studs during my recent engine build as the originals were getting a bit tatty. I simply used metric M8 x 1.0 HT bolts and cut the head off and cut another thread for the nut. I think that the finished stud was about 115 long with about 15 mm thread each end leaving about 100 mm length from the head face. The HT bolts are not the cheapest ... but far cheaper than the price quoted by John. Regards, Ewan
E.J. Ward

That's just what I was thinking, Ewan - all it needs is what I presume is 5/16 BSF at the head end (haven't checked yet) - the other end can stay as metric, unf or whatever to grip the clamps. Thanks for the confirmation.
John.
J P Hall

John Hall - the XPAG Engine is all metric. The manifold studs will have a metric thread both ends.

The body of a Y-Type is "mostly" UNF, but the engine has metric threads with Whitworth sized nuts & Bolt heads.

Safety Fast

Tony Slattery
The Classic Workshop
A L SLATTERY

Good point Tony S - I hadn't factored that in. The body of my YA is mostly BSF; only today I found the pushbutton starter rod behind the dash has unf threads. Wierd.
J P Hall

Tony, I am sure you know more than me about the details of our cars but I would be surprised if the body was "mostly" UNF. Surely UNF was not widely adopted by the UK car industry until the 1950s? My own YB has a mixture of UNF and BSF but I would be loath to make any claims about what is original in the light of the probability of past rebuilds and the use of whatever is at hand when working on the car in the past. What I am sure of is that previous cars were mainly BSF, especially back in the 1930s when our cars were designed. I would thus be surprised if this was not carried over into the 50s with the YB as the bean counters would surely be loath to change things at that stage. Of course various thread patterns will be found on parts sourced from other manufacturers, like the starter switch previously mentioned. The Lockheed brakes, for instance, fitted to T Types had American threads in the 40s. Another thing I am sure of is that the engine is metric, thanks to Nuffield's purchase of the Hotchkiss factory. The metric threads used, however, were metric fine rather than the coarser metric which is common nowadays so cutting off the heads of bolts to thread them to make a manifold stud risks offending the purists as it could have different metric threads on either end (or the maker could end up with a stud that didn't fit havung used the wrong die). Ewan seems to have realised this though. As an aside on John's previous comments about a starter "push switch", shouldn't that be a pull switch or has youf car been "modernised" with one of the big red buttons so beloved by car manufacturers nowadays? How many people who are seduced by such things realise how old (sorry I should have saud "retro" they are).

Ian
ian thomson

Ian I suspect that was a typo from TS - not much UNF on a YA or a YB. However my 1949 YA has the original pushbutton starter (see separate thread today), which I actually prefer to the pull cable - less to go wrong!
John.
J P Hall

Thanks for the info about the starter John. The longer I live the more I learn. Soon I'll know everything! My copy of the Workshop manual soon put me right.
Ian
ian thomson

Ian - every time I check the WSM or LTBYs, I find more clarity than I had before. I should have said "not much UNF on a YA" yesterday, because I do understand that more UNF fixings were used during YB production. This hobby is not for the faint-hearted!
John
J P Hall

My humble apologies - yes a careless mistake - I should have said "BSF", not "UNF" - no idea what happened in my brain that day.

There is a catalogue of all the nuts and bolts on this website - drawn up by myself, decades ago.
No UNF there !.

Safety Fast

Tony Slattery
The Classic Workshop
A L SLATTERY

This thread was discussed between 02/03/2022 and 16/03/2022

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